A Brush with Death
by Ranowa Hikura
Summary: Olivia teaches Casey how to drive stick-shift. Then Casey decides to make up for scratching her car. CO. Don't like it, don't read it.


Inspired by my recent jaunt with driving- most of the mistakes… okay, all of the mistakes Casey makes, I made. In my defense, I'd only been driving for three days. Modest Jonathan wrote about two paragraphs- which I had to grammar check, thanks a lot! And one of my fics dedicated to Casey's return to SVU in two weeks! AHHH I'M SO EXCITED!

"Okay, so, what do you know about driving a stick shift?" Olivia asked, watching as Casey slowly put her hands on the steering wheel, biting her lip in confusion before she shrugged and looked back at Olivia.

"Um... it involves gears. And a steering wheel. And... that's about it."

Olivia chuckled and rolled her eyes, shaking her head in response. "Well, it's probably a good thing that you didn't try and drive me home from the bar last night, or we both would have ended up in the ER." Casey glared at her, then shrugged and nodded in agreement. With another eye roll, Olivia gestured at the gears and asked, "Okay, do you know what gear it's in?"

Casey stared at it in confusion like it was rocket science before asking hesitantly, "Um... 6th?"

Olivia laughed, shaking her head and shoving Casey playfully. "Wow. Put you in a law library where you surrounded by confusing documents with long latin words and phrases designed to make you go insane and you're at home, but put you in a car with gears and you're transformed into an imbecile. No, honey, there IS no 6th gear. You're in neutral."

The ADA stared at the gears for another second before she blushed and just shook her head. "Okay, this is too confusing. And, for your information, just because I have never driven a stick shift before does not make me an imbecile! It just means I was lucky and my parents bought me an automatic! So there!"

With a chuckle, Olivia put her seatbelt on and directed Casey to turn the car on. "All right, Casey, here's what you do- take the parking brake off, push down the clutch and the brake, put it in first. Then slowly take your foot off the clutch and when you hear the engine catch, start adding gas. Okay?"

"Okay," she said doubtfully, then managed to successfully put it in first gear. The moment Casey pushed down the gas pedal, however, the engine revved, getting louder and louder until Casey slammed down the clutch in a panic and the engine died. After a second, she slowly looked up at Olivia, who proceeded to burst out laughing, shaking her head as she pushed Casey playfully again.

"Casey, you'll never be able to drive down the road if that's how you plan to drive! Here, try again."

Casey took a deep breath and hit the clutch, turning the key to restart the engine. The engine revved back to life and Casey slowly moved her right foot off the brake to the gas pedal and began to release the clutch with her other foot. The car began to crawl forward and as soon as the engine began to grip the gears Casey's left foot spasmed and dropped the clutch out; the car lurched forward painfully and halted, then lurched again. This repeated several times before, to Olivia's amazement, the car began to roll forward, recovering from its disastrous beginning. "Wow," Olivia said, "I'm impressed, I've never seen someone actually get going from such a bad beginning before."

"Ha! In your face, Detective! I told you I could drive stick shi- oh my god!" Casey shouted as she saw a guy starting to walk towards the road- even though he stayed in the bike lane and Casey was in no danger of hitting him, she panicked anyway and turned sharply, swerving into a parking lot.

"Jesus Christ, Casey!" Olivia panted, staring at her in shock. "You were no where near hitting that guy! Do you even HAVE a license?"

The ADA glared at her, then exclaimed, "Yes, as a matter of fact, I do! Got it the day I turned 16- my parent's idea of a birthday party .Of course, all I wanted to do was go out to a REAL party that night, but I was too busy trying to cram in five weeks worth of studying in one night. My birthday just HAPPENED to be the day before exams. Ugh."

Olivia let out another chuckle, then said, "Wow. I never figured you for a procrastinator."

"That's because you didn't know me in high school."

The detective closed her eyes for a moment, trying to imagine Casey as a squealing, giggling teenage girl. It didn't work out well. "As weird as 'Casey in high school' sounds to me, Counselor, we still need to get you driving. Try again- and this time, don't panic for no reason."

"Hmph. You know, for that comment, Detective, I might just drive us into another car. And, since this is your car, it'd be your insurance company that would get mad, not mine." Then Casey started trying to drive again.

This time, she actually made it a few feet before she tried to shift gears without using the clutch, and the car lurched forward. "No! Use the clutch!" Olivia shouted as Casey continued to try and force it, then the detective leaned across Casey and pushed down on the clutch with her hands. This time, Casey successfully switched gears, although she was far more focused on the detective in her lap then the road.

"Oh... Olivia, mmm..." She mumbled, reaching down to run a hand through her hair when Olivia twisted over so she was looking at Casey and pointed up at the road.

"Casey! Look at the road! LOOK AT THE ROAD!"

The ADA glanced back up, disoriented, then screamed and smashed down on the brakes, swerving again, barely avoiding another car. They ended up lurching off the road and skidding into a ditch, where Casey managed to kill the engine. Again.

Panting for breath, Olivia slowly sat upright, then gasped, "My car!" The detective dashed around outside to inspect the damage while Casey waited sheepishly for her return. Finally, Olivia came back and growled, "You are extremely lucky that did not hurt my car, Casey. ExTREMELY lucky."

The ADA smiled at her, then said, "Well, what can I say? Redheads have all the luck in the world. And about your car, by the way- I've thought of a name for it: Benovak."

"Benovak?" Olivia asked in puzzlement, turning her confused gaze to Casey.

"Benson, Novak," Casey explained happily. "Or, Benovak. My pet name for out relationship. And it's just like your car- people hate on it, but despite the fact that it crashes and burns every other day, it has it's goods parts and never fails. Right, Liv?"

"Oh, yes," Olivia said as she turned towards Casey and started kissing her enthusiastically. "Mmm..." She trailed off, then pulled away from Casey and asked, "Honey, did you by chance have a chocolate bar for lunch?"

The ADA nodded. "Mmmhmm. Why?"

"Because I can taste it!" With that, Olivia started kissing her again, enjoying the taste of chocolate much more now that it had a touch of Casey in there.

A week later

After their first attempt had ended with a makeout session, Olivia had made a rule- no touching until they got out of the car. A rule that Casey violated the fourth time they climbed into Olivia's car for another lesson at driving stick shift.

"Casey!" Olivia complained, swatting at her hands like the ADA was a fly. "Casey, stop! What are you doing?"

Casey finished off the knot holding the blindfold in place and murmured in the detective's ear, "You'll see," before brushing a kiss against her lips. "Now, just sit back and enjoy the ride. I promise I won't crash." Casey did her seatbelt for her, and then Olivia heard her start the engine.

"Casey," she warned, "I swear, it you kill the engine even ONE time, I'm taking off this blindfold and stopping you from driving us straight into the ER. Okay?" She heard Casey's light, throaty laugh as a response, and Olivia continued with, "Case, come on! Where are you taking me?" When Casey just chuckled again, she exclaimed, "Casey Novak, if you don't tell me where we're going right this instant, I am going to kill you!"

"I told you, you'll see! And this is a present from me AND Elliot, so why don't you see if killing him takes the edge off before you go after me, all right?" Olivia frowned, trying to think about why Elliot would give her a present and what this present could be before Casey's feather-light touches started distracting her.

By the time Casey exclaimed, "We're here!" and stopped the car, Olivia was practically drooling in anticipation, because Casey's teasing led her to believe she knew what the present was: sex. But why would Casey need to go to all this trouble for that?

"You can't take off the blindfold yet! I'm going to lead you inside, and, when I say so, you can take off the blindfold. But only when I say so! Got it, Liv? Because if you break the rules, you won't be getting anything tonight."

Olivia nodded eagerly, so Casey undid her seatbelt and helped the detective out of the car. She clung to the ADA's arm, stumbling forward until Casey caught her. "Um, no, sweetie, falling isn't the right direction. Here, how about this?" Olivia gasped when her feet were lifted off the ground and her head turned sideways. She shouted in alarm, but was stopped by Casey's voice. "Shush, honey. I just picked you up." She grunted softly, then huffed, "Jeez, Liv! I'm not saying you'rE fat or anything, but would it kill you to lose a few pounds? My arms feel like they're about to fall off!"

"Casey!" Olivia exclaimed in horror, swinging her fist in the air and trying to hit Casey.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" Casey said quickly, giving her a short kiss before walking again. "Okay, I've gotta put you down now. So don't fall over." Olivia leaned against Casey, not trusting her own feet as the ADA took her hand and pulled her inside. "Just a little farther now, sweetheart... all right, just stay upright." Suddenly, Casey's hand disappeared from her own, and Olivia almost toppled over, only barely managing to grab something that felt like a doorframe for support. There was some rustling, then Casey called, "Okay, Liv. You can take your blindfold off now."

Somewhat apprehensively, Olivia untied the blindfold and let the scrap piece of cloth to fall to the floor...

Casey was sprawled on the bed, wearing a ridiculously sexy nurse's uniform that left very little to the imagination, a chocolate donut in one hand, the other beckoning for Olivia. "Wha... how..." she stammered, staring hungrily at Casey- and not just the donut.

"You always said it was your fantasy to make love to a doctor with a chocolate donut to keep you company. And it was either to pay for four years of medical school or buy the outfit, so... fantasize away!"

"Mmm... oh, Doctor Novak, you certainly do make this patient feel better... what brought this on, though?" she asked as she crawled into bed next to Casey and fit herself into the ADA's arms.

"I'm making up for scratching your car the first day of driving lessons. Does this about cover it?"

Olivia nuzzled her head into Casey's neck, smiling widely when she heard the ADA purr almost involuntarily. "Oh, definitely. God, Novak, do you know how much I love you right now?"

"How about you prove it to me?"

One day later

"Olivia! Olivia! Olivia!" The detective was woken up by the fact that someone was jumping on the bed- a very loud someone. "I did it, Olivia, I did it!"

"What?" she grumbled, squinting against the bright light as Casey got down on her hands and knees and started shaking Olivia awake. "Casey, it's too damn early! Come on, what'd you do?"

"Well," she started off, clearly proud of herself, "first of all, I brought you coffee. Second of all, I made it through rush hour traffic while driving stick shift! Yay for me!" The mention of coffee woke Olivia up right away, and she started crawling around in bed searching for caffeine. Casey handed it to her with a chuckle.

Once Olivia had swallowed some of the hot liquid, she looked back up with Casey with a smile, still clutching the coffee. "God I love you right now."

With a laugh, Casey kissed her on the cheek and said, "I love you too. Say, Olivia... you know, since today is your day off and I'm technically still on medical leave for that stupid pneumonia thing... how about we take Benovak out for a spin?"

"Depends. You talking about the car or the...um... sexual aspect?"

"What do you think?" Casey asked with a seductive wink. Olivia didn't bother responding; she simply rolled into Casey's arms and picked up where she had dropped off last night.

And yes, I really did name my car (you read right, Modest Jonathan, MY car) Benovak. Feedback please, because my fanfic buzz is going wild… I can't wait until April 13th…


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